1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device having a mechanism to be connected to various external devices for the transmission and reception of data and power feeding.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with the widespread of personal computers (PC), smartphones, tablet terminals, and wearable terminals for collecting biological information and the like, various data and information have been transmitted and received between various electronic devices.
Also, with the widespread of portable (mobile) electronic devices, power feeding for charging a secondary battery (rechargeable battery) incorporated in a device has been frequently performed.
In the transmission and reception of data (hereinafter referred to as “data transmission”) and power feeding between electronic devices, a known method using a wire cable or wireless communication is generally used. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) Publication No. 2000-339067 discloses a technique where a USB (Universal Serial Bus) cable is used for data transmission and power feeding between a PC and another electronic device. Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) Publication No. 2001-251335 discloses a technique where data transmission is performed by using a wireless communication technology corresponding to communication standards such as Bluetooth (registered trademark).
However, in these disclosed methods, a communication cable is required to be kept available for data transmission and power feeding between electronic devices. In addition, an operation of connecting the electronic devices by the communication cable is required to be performed, which is burdensome for the device user.
In particular, because the shapes and the specifications of communication cables for use in data transmission and power feeding often vary according to their electronic device manufacturers, communication standards, and the like, users having a plurality of electronic devices may be required to keep a plurality of communication cables of different types available, and reconnect or switch them.
In addition, in cases where data transmission via wireless communication is performed between the electronic devices, functional sections for wireless communication are required to be incorporated into electronic devices in advance, which disadvantageously increase the sizes of the electronic devices, complicate the structures, and affect the production costs.